Georgia Ruling Party Approves Cabinet With Kobakhidze as Premier

(Bloomberg) -- Georgian lawmakers approved Irakli Kobakhidze to continue as prime minister even as members of the opposition pressed on with a boycott in protest of last month’s parliamentary election results.

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The ruling Georgian Dream party nominated Kobakhidze and others confirmed for cabinet posts today. The party’s lawmakers convened parliament earlier this week for its first session after receiving 89 of 150 assembly seats in the Oct. 26 vote. The ruling party later set Dec. 14 as the date for presidential elections, and billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, Georgian Dream’s founder, announced on Wednesday that former footballer and current lawmaker Mikheil Kavelashvili would be their candidate.

Kobakhidze, 46, has held the position of premier since February of this year. Lawmakers approved a few changes to his cabinet, including backing Maka Bochorishvili as the new foreign minister and new Anri Okhanashvili as the justice minister.

There have been weeks of rallies following the October election results, with crowds of people marching in protest of alleged fraud in the balloting. Law enforcement twice broke up an opposition camp in the center of Georgia’s capital, Tbilisi, and have detained more than a dozen people.

The current president, Salome Zourabichvili, has been critical of the ruling party from her mostly ceremonial position. The pro-European Union head of state and a group of opposition lawmakers have filed Constitutional Court motions to nullify the election results.

“The parliament had no legal authority to vote on” ratifying the election results, said Vakhtang Khmaladze, a constitutional expert and former professor at the Caucasus University. “Therefore everything they do can not count as legal, including the cabinet confirmation.”

Eighty-four lawmakers voted in favor of confirming the government, and no one present voted against.

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